


Frozen in Fear

by Iamthesmileyface



Category: Mystery Skulls Animated
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Ambiguous/Open Ending, Amnesia, Gen, Ghost Vivi AU, ghost vivi, less open now i guess, vengeance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-22
Updated: 2019-01-06
Packaged: 2019-09-24 15:38:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,206
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17103335
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Iamthesmileyface/pseuds/Iamthesmileyface
Summary: It's been nearly a year since Arthur's lost his arm and Vivi vanished without a trace, and the van's broken down in front of a small blue house whose windows are coated in frost, despite the heat.A ghost Vivi au!





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> inspired by a gorgeous ghost Vivi art done by doesromandoart / rolanslide on tumblr! go check them out their art stabs me in the chest in a good way.

Most of the forums he’d read through, nearly a year ago, back when he was still making blueprints for his arm, said that pretty much everyone who had an attached metal prosthetic or a large metal implant suffered when it got hot. So as a defense against the blazing Texas heat, Arthur had installed a cooling mechanism in the arm. Usually, this was a godsend. But here? His gut roiled as he shivered, the prosthetic and docking port in his shoulder leaching the heat from his body more than normal metal would. His voice was frozen in his throat, his teeth chattering hard enough that he didn’t even open his mouth for fear of biting his own tongue off. He looked desperately around the tunnel he was in, the soft blue light emanating from the glistening ice walls casting everything into a strange, wavering light. There wasn’t a sign or even a sound of Lewis or Mystery, even though he’d heard them sliding down the icy slope behind him. But the tunnel he was in cut off not an inch behind him, the ice as sheer and unblemished as all the rest.

  


The house had seemed...well. It hadn’t seemed normal at all, actually. A small, ramshackle house in what Arthur could have sworn had been a vacant lot when they passed it a few months ago, faintly glowing blue, with iced over windows? In this weather? Definitely, certainly, 100%, haunted as fuck. But the van had broken down in flashes of blue light, and Lewis was already halfway up the path to the front door by the time Arthur realized what had probably happened. Lewis insisted that the clearly-haunted house wasn’t inhabited by anything malevolent, that he, weirdly enough, felt welcomed here. Arthur, whose sense of unease had only grown the closer he got to the house, glanced at Mystery. Who was, of course. A dog. Arthur wasn’t going to get any help from that quarter. He didn’t know what he expected.

  


The door had slammed shut behind them in a gust of cold wind that nearly knocked Arthur over as soon as they were over the threshold. Inside, the house was dimly lit and bare. Lewis had barely started in on his whole “we mean you no harm” spiel when the floor had given way under them, the cold air stabbing like so many needles against Arthur’s skin as they slid down, down,  _ down. _ There had been a few jagged icicles jutting out on the slope, one just barely missing Arthur and instead eviscerating his puffy vest before he was dumped into this frozen tunnel barely tall enough for Arthur to walk down and just narrow enough for him to feel claustrophobic. 

  


He wrapped his flesh arm around himself, holding his prosthetic as far from his body as possible. He looked around at the featureless ice walls, wishing desperately a) for Lewis and/or Mystery, no, wait,  _ and _ , definitely  _ and _ Mystery to be here; b) that he was wearing something more substantial than a T-shirt; and c) that Vivi was here, so he’d have the barest beginnings of a clue as to what the hell he was dealing with here beyond  _ ghost _ . God, he wished Vivi were there in general, he was supposed to be the reluctant tech and research guy, not the one pushing them towards ghost hunting missions that would definitely get them all killed! But with Lewis not having the vaguest memory of his literal actual girlfriend, who had just vanished without a trace, it fell to Arthur to keep them looking for her. And Vivi could never resist a supernatural mystery, haunting, or happening, so here they were. Honestly, it was supposed to be Arthur who went missing and got abducted and stuff, not Vivi. That was how it always went. Case in point.

  


A sharp gust of wind at his back knocked him forward, tripping over his own feet and landing in an undignified heap on the frigid floor. Shivering harder, he looked back. Still just a solid wall of ice. Which meant that the only way to go was...exactly the way the ghost wanted him to go. Great. At least walking would warm him up a little. The air stung his nose, his breath billowing around him. He stumbled and slid, feet completely nerveless in the chill and gaining no traction on the ice. He walked for an age or a minute. Arthur could feel icicles forming in his eyebrows, and his body just felt so heavy. But any time he stopped, an arctic wind would stab through him, practically flaying the skin from his bones, so he dragged himself forward. By the time anything around him changed, he was shivering so hard he could barely see, and wasn’t quite sure he wanted to keep his eyes open anyway. His shuffling footsteps echoed loudly in the cavernous room he found himself in, and he looked over his shoulder in time to see the tunnel cave in behind him.

  


There was something silhouetted against the far wall, a black structure awash in crystalline blue. He shuffled forward, breath coming in quick puffs, and felt his heart stutter. The structure was a coffin, jet black with a pattern of vined flowers etched in the same blue as the ice around him. He shook with more than cold as he tried to backpedal, his heart in his throat. But his feet wouldn’t move, frozen with fear except his shaking. The coffin  _ creaked  _ open, and all Arthur could do was stare. 

  


Inside was a skeleton in a long, dark blue dress with a snowflake pattern that shone dimly. Its  _ (her?) _ ribs were protruding, thick and stark white in the harsh blue light. Two ice blue circles illuminated the dark eye sockets, and the ghost stepped out of her coffin, a flurry of light blue snow arraying itself in an imitation of a bob haircut on the skeletal skull. Arthur shook, staring at the figure with painfully wide, watering eyes, nearly collapsing in cold and fear as she glided forward.

  


Arthur felt a glacial hand grip his chin harshly, skeletal fingers on black hands of pure ghostly energy digging into his flesh and sending a sharp, aching chill through his entire body as the ghost floated up to eye level with him. A woman’s voice echoed through the cavern. “Arthur Kingsman.” His eyes flashed around frantically for something, anything that could distract the ghost or provide him with an escape route, or just anything, anything at all except the ghost with the too-familiar voice, oh god what was going on why was her voice so familiar?! “ _ Look _ at me, Arthur.” His eyes snapped to her glowering skull. “Look what you’ve  _ done _ to me!” The cavern shook, ice chipping off and clattering across the floor. “ _ Look at what you’ve left me! _ ” The hand slipped from his chin to his throat.

  


The world spun, and through chattering teeth and frozen throat, using the last of his air, he choked out a weak, barely audible,  _ “Vivi?” _

  


And he knew no more.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A glimpse into what happened after.

Cayenne Pepper was no scaredy-cat, and she certainly wasn’t a wimp. That’s why she was standing in front of the giant blue manor that had haunted the outskirts of Tempo for maybe a year now. She took a deep breath, adjusted her devil-horn headband, and reminded herself that Johnny Simmons had both double-dog-dared her to go into the mansion  _ and  _ bet twenty dollars that she would chicken out.

 

As soon as she stepped past the low walls that bordered the mansion’s grounds, she shivered, her breath clouding in front of her. The temperature around her had plummeted. Cayenne rubbed her arms, walking as quickly as she could while still being silent. She scanned the exterior of the building, looking for any place she could break in. Twenty dollars was  _ not _ enough to get her to knock on the doors. Plus, if all the rumors about this place being haunted were somehow wrong or if the ghost was chill or whatever; if she called attention to herself here whoever lived here would probably call her mom, and then she’d be grounded for  _ life _ . Ever since Lewis and Arthur vanished, her parents had gone crazy with the whole overprotective thing.

 

_ There! _ A window with a missing pane. It was just big enough for her to get through, too. She put her hands on the sill, peeking over into the house. The room looked empty in the moonlight, lacy curtains drifting in the gentle, icy breeze. Okay. She could do this. It was just like sneaking back into her house.

 

Silently, she climbed through, sitting in the window for a moment as she made sure the room was as abandoned as it looked. Cayenne grinned victoriously. She was in the clear. Taking a moment to make sure that her phone camera wouldn’t make any noise, she snapped a few photos of the honestly pretty wrecked looking room. It was all motheaten and abandoned. She wiped her nose on the back of her hand. 

 

Technically, she could leave now. She had proof that she’d been inside the creepy mansion to rub in Johnny’s smug face. And if she was being completely honest, she couldn’t stop thinking about how Arthur’s beat-up old van had been found, without any trace of Lewis or Arthur, right in front of this place. But the slightly ajar door at the other end of the room  _ was  _ tantalizing, she had to admit. Glancing back between the gently-swaying curtains on the window and the door, she started chewing on her lip.  _ In for a penny, in for a pound. _

 

She didn’t even have to push the door further open to get past it. Cayenne let her eyes adjust to the dark hallway, taking in the stained, peeling wallpaper and tattered carpet. God, this place was a dump for a ghost mansion. Her heart in her throat, she crept down the hall, keeping to one side. She’d read somewhere that floorboards were less likely to creak if they were closer to the walls.

 

Ahead of her, she could see moonlight, and the brisk breeze brushed past her. It looked like the hallway opened up to some kind of courtyard. Cayenne snapped a few more photos of the hallway before she pressed forward, stepping into the cobblestone courtyard as carefully as she could.

 

_ Someone was in the courtyard _ . She froze, her heart pounding in her throat. After a moment of tense stillness, she exhaled slowly. Just a statue. A statue in the light of the full moon, unnervingly lifelike.

 

Cayenne frowned, slipping her phone into her pocket. That statue looked almost familiar. She glanced around, seeing a lot of other statues but nothing moving. Tiptoeing forward, she crossed to the first statue she’d seen. Her gasp echoed through the stillness like a gunshot. 

 

The statue was of a man, one arm at his side, the other, shining dully in the moonlight, grasping at something at his throat. His face was a mask of terror. Cayenne was trying to keep her breath steady, the same terror and horror coursing through her. She knew that face. She’d seen that face, that ridiculously spiked hairstyle, in family photos, in the restaurant, in the missing-person ads plastered all over town. In front of her was a note-perfect statue of Arthur Kingsmen. Down to the colors, the bleach-fried blond hair, and the shiny metal prosthetic!

 

Gulping in the crisp air, she tore her gaze away from the petrified face of her pseudo-brother, eyes darting around her, only to freeze once again. Behind her was a larger statue, mostly purple, a large pompadour obscuring the eyes, mouth open in a silent yell, hand outstretched towards the first. Lewis. Cayenne could hear her own breathing, quick and jagged and far too loud in the freezing night. Her brother and her kinda-brother were both here, right in front of her, still as statues. She glanced around desperately. There must have been a hundred statues in the courtyard with her, one of a giant dog-creature with multiple tails fanning out behind it, most of humans, no one she recognized but they all had expressions of terror, of disbelief, of desperation!

 

The wind picked up, whipping at Cayenne’s hair and clothes, the chill cutting her to the bone. At the other end of the courtyard, something started to glow a bright, icy blue. 

 

Cayenne bolted.

 

She didn’t worry about noise, panic pushing her legs beyond anything she’d ever managed before. She dove out the window, landing in a heap on the frozen ground. She pushed herself up, stumbling and falling as she sprinted, hopping over the walls and into the hot Texas night. She didn’t stop, either, as the road turned from dirt to pavement, familiar buildings flashing by her. Cayenne skidded to a stop in front of her house, banging on the door frantically, too out of breath and still too terrified to yell. Blood was pouring down one leg from a scraped knee, and her muscles felt like jelly. 

 

The door swung open, her father’s panicked face stunning her for a moment before she lunged forward, burying her face in his chest and shaking, sobbing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shoutout to my dear friends who aid and abet me! Especially you, Mads, this wouldn't have happened without you!

**Author's Note:**

> Did she kill him? Did he pass out from fear? I don't know, why are you asking me!
> 
> I feel like Vivi is definitely not as theatrical as Lewis, and is approx. 500% more willing to throw hands Constantly, so she didn't really waste much time lmao.


End file.
